2. Current School donations and pledges made (approx. £11,775)

Year 6 to investigate using unused fruit, specifically in the summer term, to make either fruit ices or fruit smoothies. Money raised could be used for Year 6 end of year party. PTA to contact Year 6 reps

Clarity requested regarding the increase/high cost of swimming lessons, what the approach is for children in Year 5 & 6 towards swimming targets and what the school activities are for school based children whilst their peers are swimming

Allocation of funds raised from the Valentine Bake was discussed and it was agreed that money raised should be split 50/50 between UNICEF's Syria Winter Appeal

www.justgiving.com/achievingforchildren and the fund set aside for the school parent community to subsidise school trips. Anyone wanting to use the fund should contact Mrs Cox for more details (communicated in PTA weekly newsletter).

4. Awesome ideas for 2015/16 fundraising causes – ‘Involve & Inspire’

Significant interest was shown in the Junior Library project and in the forthcoming report. Possible creation of a school librarian position to maximise the benefit from the library was discussed and also the possibility of sharing this type of resource with other local schools. This idea will be forwarded to the project team.

The allocation of funds to the ecology area was discussed. There was a general level of interest but concern was shared that due to the safety issues the area would need to be fenced off. This requirement would mean usage by the children would be quite restricted. A request was made to clarify the extent to which the area would be used in conjunction with the curriculum prior to committing any funds.

The suggestion to use the Art Week activities to support the development of the Ecology area was proposed. The children could use the time to get involved in the area and at the same time create artwork that could be used in it. The potential for working with the older years in constructing bird tables and other elements of the Eco Area was suggested.

The issue of contribution to the replacement of the school laptops was proposed. The current laptops were purchased about 5 years ago and are used for various school activities including the creation of the HT Kingfisher Frenzy magazine. The performance of the laptops is very poor and it takes many minutes for them to carryout basic tasks. It was recommended that some of the PTA funds went towards replacing these. Further analysis is requested to determine the reasons for the poor performance issues before agreeing any funding.

A general discussion was held regarding the challenge of the curriculum change including the new assessment process for both children and staff. Everyone recognised that this was a challenging time for all involved and wondered what the PTA could contribute to support this transition. This discussion needs to be continued and developed with the school to best assess how the PTA can offer support.

The suggestion of using funds to develop children’s typing skills, a good life skill. This needs to be explored further.